Posted
by
timothy
on Tuesday December 03, 2013 @04:32PM
from the it's-stereo-so-you-can-see-everything-twice dept.

In the world of head-worn displays, Google Glass seems to lately get most of the praise as well as most of the dirty looks, though it's far from alone. At this year's DroidCon in London, I talked with Epson Europe product manager Marc-Antoine Godfroid about a very different kind of head-worn display: the Moverio BT-100. Epson's display is running a Google operating system, but it isn't competing with Glass, at least not directly. The hardware in this case is a relatively high-definition stereo display meant for immersion (whether that means information overlays or watching recorded video) hooked to an external control unit running Android, rather than the sparer, information-dashboard, all-in-one approach of Glass. One other big difference: Epson's stereo, full-color headset is cheaper than Glass, and available now. Hit the link below to see what it looks like.

Marc-Antoine:
So this is the Epson Moverio BT-100, which is a binocular see-through
display. So here we have a dark shade, but actually the display, as
you can see, is totally transparent. So the principle is that we have
two projectors in this side of the unit that projects an image
_____00:19 that you can find in the transparent parts and this
image is reflected to the user eyes via these two semi-reflective
mirrors that we have just in front of the eyes.

So basically this
mirror is going to reflect the image creatively on this side of the
device. But you can still see through the mirror, so ambient light
can go through the display and this is why you can still see through
the see-through display of the product. So when you wear Moverio, you
will see a huge 80-inch display floating right in front of your eyes.
So the display resolution is quarter of HD, so 960 x 540.

Tim: One in each
eye?

Marc-Antoine:
Sorry?

Tim: In each
eye, it’s the same as this one?

Marc-Antoine:
Any?

Tim: In each
eye?

Interviewer: Oh
yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, totally, because basically we are going to
project three images that is in front of you is going to be only one
screen, so one huge screen. And so on this display, it is powered by
the pocket-held controller here that is running Android. So basically
inside you have the battery and the CPU. This is where you have the
Wi-Fi module. So this is how you operate the unit as well. So you
have a check pad here for tactile control. So basically it is a
really familiar user interface. Basically if you know to use a
smartphone or a tablet, you will know how to use this product.

Tim: It is very
different from using a typical tablet?

Marc-Antoine: Yeah,
but this form factor is really different and this is where the
innovation is. So the good thing is that basically this product is
totally hands-free because when you wear it, so you have this display
fitting here and you don’t have to hold your device to see what
is going on. So this is really, really interesting for many
applications.

So first this product,
it’s a really a good entertainment device. So the good thing
versus smartphone and tablet is that the display is really bigger.
It’s like a smartphone is between 5 inch now; a tablet is
around 7 inch to 10 inch; here you see an 80-inch screen from 5
meters, and the farther you look, the bigger the image looks. So
basically if you look at 20 meters away, the display will look like
320-inch screen. So like a cinema screen. It is really amazing. And
the good thing as well is that since you have your hands free, like I
was saying, you can really enjoy your content in any position, like
for instance, watching a movie, playing video game and watching on
the roof.

Tim: What sort
of input devices are there actually integrated with the device? Is
there camera?

Marc-Antoine: No,
no, no. The product doesn’t have a camera.

Tim: But it does
have motion sensors?

Marc-Antoine:
Neither. No, no, no. The _____03:20 version of the Moverio
BT-100 doesn’t fit your camera or motion sensors. But we are
offering a NavBot for developers if they are interested to start
evaluating this kind of features, so they can easily connect that
development platform and add a camera to this product to see where
the technology is going because this device is very interesting for
entertainment, but the magic comes from the application which can be
for the device. So basically this is a standout Android device,
developers can use the classic Android SDK to build application, so
it is really easy for them to develop the application but they can
take advantage of the amazing see-through display we have created
with the product.

Tim: Can you
talk about why it is running in Android 2.2?

Marc-Antoine: Yeah,
because the product was launched in late 2011, so Epson has been
really innovative with the technology because it is quite a long time
ago now already while variable displays and variable technology
_____04:20 all around but we have been really one of the first
mover on the market and this is a very complex technology, so we are
working out to make it smaller, lighter and to improve its features.
But it takes time. So at the moment, it is still running Android 2.2,
but like I said, developers can still really start developing
application easily and also they can use this video input ball to see
what they could do with the device.

Tim: There are a
lot of applications that run on 2.2.

Marc-Antoine:
Yeah, exactly.

Tim: Pretty big
library.

Marc-Antoine:
Exactly. Exactly. Really we have some people that have been doing
already some great things. So for instance _____05:02 we are
showcasing a museum application running directly on Android 2.2 and
showing a little bit how this kind of product and especially ours can
really disrupt all the industries that we know today talking about
that might have already been disrupted by smartphones and tablets,
because of the form factor and the fact that it is hands-free and you
have this display. You can really imagine many, many applications, so
whatever it’s for, entertainment, gaming, museums, education,
architecture, whatever you think of, you can really find an
application. But it’s really more suited for this kind of
display which is much more natural way to consume information and
content.

Tim: By putting
the battery and the CPU, I guess, in a box like this, that means you
have more space to put energy storage, how long can you actually be
able to use the device?

Marc-Antoine: So
we have a really good battery life of six hours. So we can really
support in terms of usage and it is really important for this kind of
product whose aim is really to remain wireless and to allow you to
enjoy your content anytime anywhere and also really important to have
this big battery life, especially also because people come up with
really great idea about augmented reality thanks to the see-through
display that we are offering, which is really a natural platform for
this technology because we have this big display just in front of
your eyes. And you can make it transparent. So basically you can just
see the wall through the transparent lenses of the product and just
overlay this additional information, this additional _____06:43
really a good platform for augmented reality and as it is really the
next wave in apps development, so we are waiting for developers to
really start thinking of how they can port the application on this
kind of product and especially on ours.

Tim: How much
does it cost to get started?

Marc-Antoine:
So, the product goes for £429 or €499 depending on where
you live. So it is a really competitive price because we are the only
company in the world that are offering this bigger clarity display at
this price. You can try other products but they cost €1000. So
it is really amazing what our engineers did with the product.

Tim: And for
being binocularly colored and adaptable to lot of circumstances, it
seems like it is a pretty good price for the device.

Marc-Antoine:
Yeah, yeah, it is. We really think it’s really interesting, so
many people can afford it and many people can benefit from these
features, so we are really excited by this product. As we said, we
are working on the future, so we expect really to see some really
cool things from Epson and this is really an amazing product.

Wearing stuffs like this that distract the wearers from the reality around them is dangerous.

Not only they could walk into walls, they also could be distracted enough (like this Epson thingy which actually plays movie) to walk into the middle of a very busy thoroughfare !

As if we haven't had enough of drivers distracted by their phones, now we are equipping the pedestrians with glasses which actually blind them from what is going on around them.

Well, evolutionarily speaking we have kind of been coasting for awhile now... we are getting bigger and dumber (it would seem) so a thinning of the herd may be useful. Think of it as adding chlorine and a filter to the gene pool... give people the option to massively screw up and maybe win a Darwin Award. [darwinawards.com]

Wearing stuffs like this that distract the wearers from the reality around them is dangerous.

Not only they could walk into walls, they also could be distracted enough (like this Epson thingy which actually plays movie) to walk into the middle of a very busy thoroughfare !

As if we haven't had enough of drivers distracted by their phones, now we are equipping the pedestrians with glasses which actually blind them from what is going on around them.

Well, evolutionarily speaking we have kind of been coasting for awhile now... we are getting bigger and dumber (it would seem) so a thinning of the herd may be useful. Think of it as adding chlorine and a filter to the gene pool... give people the option to massively screw up and maybe win a Darwin Award. [darwinawards.com]

The problem is that such people generally don't suffer from their own mistakes; if they screw up while operating a half ton killing machine, it's not usually them that get the daisies. So what we're really saying is that people who live in areas where this kind of device is acceptable in public need to get culled.

No; distracted pedestrians (whether texting on their phone or wearing blinkers) also tend to cause more havoc than they reap, as people tend to prefer to crash into non-living objects when given the option.

They are not that great.1. They are heavy. They feel light when holding them in your hand. One your face they are quite heavy.2. They don't work well with glasses. They can balance on glasses. Which works OK for a bit, but the weight distribution causes them to be uncomfortable.3. They run Android 2.3.4. Did I mention they were heavy?5. WHAT IS ON YOUR FACE? AUGH

The Epson version of glass would come in with a teasingly low price, but it will include only a nominal "cartridge" and replacement cartridges would be priced somewhere north of 7999$. But you would get a c 10$ off coupon if you have Office Depot card.

All they need is sort of position sensor, and it'll be better than Oculus or Google glasses for argumentation of the reality (assuming there is already 3D model of surrounding). Because it's transparent and has 3D in front of your eyes. I can definitely see the real life application for such a device. They can even mount it on helmet and add stereo cameras for real time 3d scanning in dynamic environment, and double the price. Imagine you repairing a car and "see" the internals, for example. You look at th

This is really a VR headset for watching movies, playing games, etc. It's not designed for the same applications Google Glass is designed for. If anything, this is a competitor to devices such as Oculus Rift, not Google Glass.

00:19 via the light guides03:20 standard version... s/doesn’t fit your/doesn't feature/04:20 s/while variable displays and variable technology/while wearable displays and wearable technology now took up05:02 at DroidCon (guessing)06:43 view that you just want, so, as/we are the only company in the world/we are the only currently in the world/

I tried the product on the NAB show 2012. It felt rather gimicky at the time and gave the sensation of staring down a blurry corridor. Even without having moving imagery on the device, it was very much a distraction and something that should be used only in safe surroundings (don't walk in traffic with them). It is a very different beast from Google Glass, but I can see some industrial applications where it would work and where Glass would not. It might also be good for watching movies while safely strapped

They're huge for one. They need to figure out how to scale them down a bit. Second, those flimsy cords are going to be an issue over time. With limited regular use I can see them breaking requiring a service interval.